Originally Posted by Dovster
When you arrive at ATL (unless this has been changed recently) on an international flight you have to go through Security even if you have no connecting flight.
The reason is that after going through Customs you have to enter the secure area of the airport before leaving the airport itself.
This could lead to the absurd situation where somebody legally gets on a flight in France with a Bic and gets arrested in Atlanta for trying to take a cigarette lighter out of the airport!
Actually, the law states that they are banned on all flights into the US as well. It may also apply to flights that overfly the US too. So you shouldn't have had it at US customs at this point, and the screeners are only picking up what the French missed. This will however, lead to interesting security issues at foreign airports. In particular it will be tough to enforce at LHR, HKG, NRT unless the create a totally seperate area for US departures and US airlines, or enact the lighter ban there too. I have a feeling I will not be using FRA to go to the US ever again. They will probably move all of the flights to that little holding area in C used for the TLV flights.
I wonder how long this law will stay in the enforced category. Takers on bets. I give it 2-4 weeks, before the media really starts getting all over it for causing major headaches at the airports.